With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

[Mr Zoat]

22nd June 2013
19:32

Oliver smiles at me as we head upwards towards the mountain's living area. "Nervous?"

I shrug, then shake my head. "No, no, I don't mind making a fool of myself. If they don't laugh at me then I'll be worried."

"They're not an entirely representative audience. I know the marketing industry took a real beating, but we can still get hold of enough people to do regular test screenings."

"Is there some problems I'm not seeing?"

"British commercials can be a little… Unique. I think it'll work well in Britain, and maybe in Europe, I just don't know… Oh hey, Arte!"

Artemis looks away from the microwave where she's heating popcorn. "Hey Ollie. Paul, when did you find time to shoot a commercial?"

"It wasn't that hard. Pinewood Studios isn't exactly over-employed at the moment, and the script was mostly off-the-cuff. And… Cadbury's is an increasingly large part of international trade, so I do actually.. keep more track of it than you might assume."

The microwave beeps, and she pulls out the bag and pours it into a prepared bowl.

"I'm not sure it's… Worth that. I mean, it's only a couple of minutes."

She shrugs as she bins the bag and picks up the bowl. "We can catch a movie after. And if your commercial is really stupid I can just throw it at you."

"My board representative had to sign off on it too."

Oliver grins as he raises his hands. "Oh, don't try blaming this on me. You're the one who decided to direct and star in his own ad campaign."

Artemis frown. "Wait, how many are there?"

"Four, but they all have the same structure with a couple of differences in the scenes."

"'Scenes'? How long are they?"

"Just a couple of minutes." I shrug. "Shot differences. I don't know; I didn't do media studies."

She shakes her head as we move into the living room, head turning to greet us.

"Thank you everyone for coming. I'll be handing out samples of the product at the conclusion of the viewing-."

"So if we run early-" Richard grins. "-we don't get anything."

"There are no flies on either of us. And given some of the missions we've been on, I'm sure you can put up with me making a fool of myself for a few minutes."

Wallace shifts over as Artemis plonks herself down next to him, wrapping one arm around her and grabbing popcorn with the other without looking. "Do Cadbury's sell Christmas cake?"

"Yes, but only seasonally." I take a data stick out of subspace as Oliver takes position at the rear of the group, arms folded across his chest. Then I walk forwards and plug the stick into the rear of the television before retreating to the side. "If whoever had the control pad would be so good?"

Kaldur raises it, moves the cursor to the new file and presses play.

The first thing on the screen is a full-colour recreation of a Cadbury's factory from the 1900s, when the company first started using condensed milk and their chocolate actually started tasting nice. It's not taken from a living museum or a coloration of old footage, just something I made using old technical and architectural plans and my ring, but it makes the point well.

My voice over starts immediately.

"In nineteen oh four, Cadbury's began using condensed milk in place of powdered milk, resulting in a chocolate of a far smoother consistency."

Nothing for two seconds, then the screen switches to me in my hastily redecorated office in Bourneville. I'm standing in front of my desk, just off centre of the shot.

"Meanwhile some of our American colleagues couldn't quite get the hang of the process of creating condensed milk, and managed to induce increased levels of bacterial growth and an increase in the levels of butyric acid. Other sources of butyric acid include…"

Those amongst my colleagues who have heard this rant before don't react as still images of a pool of vomit and a dog's posterior briefly flash up on the screen, while the others make expressions of disgust. Then the camera pulls back to reveal that both images are framed images on my desk… With a Hershey's bar resting between then.

The me on the screen looks down at it for a moment, then turns his head to the camera, looks awkward for about a second, and then without looking back picks the bar up and drops it off-camera, where it lands in a metal bin with a microphone-assisted thunk.

The me on-screen smiles awkwardly as the camera zooms in on my face.

"How did that get there?"

Me nods expectantly at the camera and it pulls back, and me walks past the image tableau.

"But over the years it seems that our friends across the Atlantic have grown to rather like the flavour of butyric acid, and the first rule of business is 'don't make it hard for people to give you money'. With that in mind-"

Me stops at a display, showing a standard Dairy Milk bar on a stand with Union Jacks and a similar bar on a stand next to it with Stars-Spangled Banners both on the packet and decorating the stand.

"-we've created this new bar-"

Me reaches down, hesitates to touch the transatlantic chocolate, opts to put a white glove on his right hand and only then picks up the Americanised bar to display it to the zoomed-in camera.

"-to appeal specifically to the American pallet. Such as it is."

Me looks exceedingly awkwardly at the bar, then raises an eyebrow at looks back at the camera.

"And we won't judge you at all for preferring it." … "Externally." Me looks a little sad. "Internally? We're judging you. We're judging you a lot."

The closing image uses the decoration on the American display box as the background, with the actual open box as the central focus.

"Cadbury's Dairy Milk America." There's a sound of me sighing. "If you really must."

The image freezes, and my colleagues continue to gape.

M'gann's head is the first to turn back to me. "Ah? What was that?"

Wallace shakes his head. "You putting that on T.V., Oh El? Like..? For real?"

"Yep."

"'cause if you run to the T.V. company's offices real fast they might give you your money back."

Robert looks around the seating. "I thought it was alright?"

Oliver raises his hands. "Save your final judgements to the end. There's still three more to go."

 

[Mr Zoat]

6th March 2025
09:21 GMT -5

"Mark, honey?" Deborah Grayson looks up in surprise as Invincible walks into her house. "What's going on?"

"Ah." He stops right where he is, freezing up. "H-hey."

I spotted that the recently-rebuilt house on the other side of the road is still a G.D.A. observation post. Omni-Man's wife could easily become a target, and then there's the fact that the local Invincible and his brother live here most of the time. The people there have almost certainly sent a message to their superiors, though whether they've notified the local-.

Oh, they have. And Atom Eve too, by the looks of things. And they are not hanging around.

"Is that all I'm getting?"

"N-. No. No, ah… Okay, ah, a bunch of different versions of me from parallel universes are invading-."

"Is it Angstrom?"

"Yes! Yes. And-."

"I thought you… I thought you killed him? You… Said…"

Oh. That's news. "Ah." Invincible isn't acting well, but he was so overtly discomported anyway that it looks like a natural continuation of how he was behaving from the moment he opened the door. "I thought I did, too. He's got a big scar across his face and a bunch of cybernetic implants, so I guess someone stuck him back together again. It's not like we understood everything about what his power can do." She nods. "But I want you to get somewhere safe before I go out and fight them."

Mrs. Grayson takes a moment to control herself, then nods. "Okay. I'll call Cecil-."

"No. They're going after the G.D.A. and the Guardians of the Globe first. So unless they put a secret bunker in the place across the street, the safest thing to do is head out of the city. Get somewhere remote, and stay there until there's an all-clear. Okay?"

She's already grabbing her car keys. "Okay. What about Oliver?"

Because this Invincible has a younger brother, and Invincible isn't used to taking him into account.

"I'll pick him up and…" He sighs to cover up the fact that he's trying to think of something. "I can't… Keep him completely safe, but I can tell him to stick with one of the recovery teams while I handle the other Invincibles."

She nods as she heads for the door.

"Alright. I don't like the idea of him seeing all those bodies, but I know that he'll refuse if we just-."

Invincible wraps his arms around her in a side-hug. "I love you, Mom."

Mrs. Grayson is momentarily surprised by the change in tone, then briefly hugs him back. "I love you too, Mark. Now-."

There's a sort of fizzing, crackling noise-

"Incoming!"

-as the local Atom Eve shoots through the space I was occupying, violet construct knives outstretched!

"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM MY MOTHER!"

The local Invincible is staring down at Invincible, fists balled but not daring to attack in case Mrs. Grayson gets hurt.

"Mark-?"

The fizzing and crackling increases as… I haven't seen Atom Eve fly that often. Apparently, she has to apply thrust through her feet, which seems inefficient. Pink energy bolts shoot towards me-.

I evade and shield, because I need to know how strong they-

Atom Eve comes to an abrupt halt in the air. "What?"

-are. Detonation… Cracks the construct but doesn't breach it. Good to know.

Invincible spreads his arms out and steps away from Mrs. Grayson. "Calm down. I'm not here to hurt Mom."

The local Invincible walks closer to Invincible. "She's not your mom!"

Atom Eve isn't attacking. She's just floating in the air, staring at me. "Who are you?"

"Invincible thought that it would be a good idea to have backup, and I was privileged to be called upon. I am Orange Lantern, Janissary of the Viltrumite Empire. From our… Parallel."

"I know." Invincible pointedly walks away from Mrs. Grayson, opening a clear route to her car. "But in my universe, my mom's… Dead. I just want her to get somewhere safe. And I… I wanted to see her again."

He shrugs, a.. little helplessly. But that doesn't seem to win him any points with his doppelgänger.

"Look, I'll help you fight the others. And I-." He looks up at me. "Lantern, get Mom out of the city!"

"Certainly." I tether Mrs. Grayson to move her into the car's driving seat, and then tether the car and lift it. "Hold on tight, Missus Grayson."

And accelerate.

She doesn't actually need to hold on tight. It's just something to say.

I could try transitioning out of the city, but there are technologies which can disrupt that and I don't want to get myself killed. I also don't want to get Mrs. Grayson killed. Looking down, it appears that news of the attacks is starting to spread. Roads are getting filled. Not clogged. Not yet. I'm not sure if that's due to some people being slow on the uptake, the belief that this will be over quickly and it's best to shelter in place, or if they've got experience with supervillains attacking road convoys.

Hm. Okay, this should be far enough. An out of town shopping centre with a large car park. Not in the countryside, but far enough from the city centre to be safeish and far enough ahead of the rush that she can drive safely. I descend, setting the car down gently.

"Good luck, Missus Grayson."

And then I fly back, focusing more easily now that I don't have a weight to carry. And-.

Oh dear. I've seen a lot of inhabited buildings knocked down over the years, but I had hoped that part of my life was over. Apparently not.

The Invincibles are in the air. Invincible's body language is a little more relaxed, while the local Invincible is… Maybe a little less hostile.

"…recruited Sinclair to build more of his zombots for the G.D.A.."

Local Invincible nods. "Yeah, he did the same here. And yeah, I'm angry about it, but that doesn't make conquering the Earth for the Viltrum Empire okay!"

"Not even if they killed Mom?"

Local Invincible jerks back slightly in the air. "What? How?"

"When Dad went… Active, Cecil tried teleporting all the zombots Sinclair had made to where Dad was. Except Sinclair was smarter than him. They appeared for, like, a second, then they hacked the teleport system and teleported right back to G.D.A. headquarters. Cecil and Mom died right away, and… By the time any reinforcements got there, their entire command team was dead."

Local Invincible hesitates, then nods. "And that's… Why? Because William and Mom were dead? And that's..? Justified? All the people you killed?"

Invincible floats there for a moment, then shrugs. "Hey, you asked why, I told you. But the other usses are wrecking your world right now, not mine. Why don't we go deal with them first?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

27th June 2013
10:13 GMT -5

Uuurgh… Yeah. It's a reasonable question.

With Queen Artemis confirming that she's prepared to order the creation of Dolmen Gate workshops, and with Atlantis agreeing to provide the technical documents and instructors, that's now something I can rely upon happening. Which means that Helmut needs me to make a decision on exactly how I want the city's layout to work vis-à-vis the Gates.

Gates capable of allowing two-way travel for heavy goods vehicles aren't exactly small or light. And while they don't have to be a circle, it's a lot easier to make them circular. So do we just assume that they will be slotted into place when the factories are set up, or do we site them in public squares, or… Cul-de-sacs set aside for the purpose? I mean, we can mount them on cranes but it's not really practical for us to stick giant cranes in the city on a permanent basis. Maybe some sort of anti-gravity lifting unit that could fly them around as needed? I mean, Helmut can draft up designs for a variety of possibilities, but he doesn't know what technology I'm prepared to-.

A… Kite flies in front of me, with… 'Look down' written on it.

I look down.

Ah, a news crew. I'm a little surprised that it took this long, but with… Things being what they are, advertising revenue is way down. Private broadcast television has mostly died off, leaving public television and internet-based services, though neither industries are exactly in a healthy state. The air time that's left is so cheap that even I'm getting sick of my chocolate advert monopolising the airwaves. I think… I think the League is funding information broadcasts of some sort, but I didn't look into it beyond confirming that it's happening. Who is-?

Ah. Of course.

I descend through the air, the skivvy holding the kite reeling it in now that it's job is done.

Much like a gun, every microphone and camera is live until it's confirmed otherwise.

"Ms. Grant. How may I be of service?"

She smirks broadly at me. "Are you taking over the world one city at a time?"

"I'm afraid that I can't talk about the Justice League taking over the world, but I can tell you anything you want to know about Hub City."

"And why can't you talk about it?"

I land and put on my best dealing-with-journalists face. "Because Batman told me not to, and I don't want to make his life even harder than it already is."

"Why do you think Batman told you not to talk about it?"

"Because I was making his life harder than it already was. Would you like to talk about Hub City at all?"

"Alright. What made you prioritise it?"

"I happened to be here when I had an idea. And it clearly needs help even more than most places."

"And what was your idea?"

"With international trade at an all-time low and sea and air trade being almost extinct, there's a shortage of agricultural vehicle production in America. Hub has a lot of land no one's using, and it used to be a manufacturing centre which means that some of the people who used to work in the industry are still around."

And we've found… A few, and they've got symbiotes now so they're in theory ready to get back to work. Just… Have to actually build a complex… I think that if I do one as a proof of concept then I can leave the rest to mundane construction techniques… Probably? I'll check the timelines with Helmut-.

"Isn't Hub a byword for crime and drug use?"

"As far as I know, it-" I nod. "-is, yes. But I already destroyed all of the drug caches, the most significant criminals are either dead or fled and with Accalacan occupying most of the land where cocaine used to come from, I think they stand a decent chance of making it work."

Because this isn't just the best chance they're going to get, it's probably the only one.

"What happens if the criminals who moved away come back?"

"The Genomorph Collective has kindly lent a brood of g-gnomes to the Hub City Police Department. It shouldn't be too difficult to find them."

"G-gnomes?"

I point over to where a site manager has one perched on his shoulder.

"The small telepathic relay genomorph type."

"They're going to eliminate crime by reading everyone's minds?"

"No, of course not. The police force is nothing like big enough to do something like that. But being able to eliminate people from their enquiries and make sure that their testimony is honest will save a great deal of time."

"What about privacy concerns?"

"G-gnomes aren't human. They barely count as intelligent beings. They don't have any interest in things that a person might find embarrassing, or things that would be commercially sensitive."

"Still…"

"Outside of a situation where there's an immediate and significant danger to life, a person could just refuse to consent. That would probably make them the target of investigation when compared to someone who had just let them do a scan to eliminate themselves from enquiries, but that's a choice they can make. Personally…"

I stop, because despite what my colleagues have alleged I do remember my media training.

She tries to raise her eyebrows, but is defeated by her botox. "I thought it was just the Justice League taking over the world that you couldn't talk about."

"Okay, so do you know why the Third Amendment exists? Why not having troops quartered in your home was rated behind only free speech and weapon ownership in importance by the Founding Fathers?"

She nods. "Because the British had a habit of forcing people to let soldiers stay in their homes without paying them."

"Right. Because there was a brief period where there was a lot of that, and it was an immediate concern for a lot of people in America at the time. But when you think about it objectively, is it really more important to fundamental human dignity than the right to a jury trial? Particularly considering that there's no amendment preventing eminent domain? They can't take your house temporarily but they can take it permanently? Does that make sense in relation to an ideal form of individual-state relations, or was it just current affairs pandering?"

"So you think the right not to incriminate yourself is 'current affairs pandering'?"

"No, but it doesn't reflect the changes in reality. A-um… For example, Britain used to have a law against trying someone for the same charge twice. Double jeopardy. It was meant to cut down on frivolous lawsuits and prevent the state just repeatedly trying someone until they got the result they wanted."

"You're saying Britain got rid of that law?"

"Yes, because we discovered genetics. Suddenly it was possible to guarantee that a particular person was in a particular place. That a.. semen sample, say, came from a particular person. But if they'd had a trial based on witness testimony and the.. limited physical evidence that was available at the time and the accused had been acquitted… Even if now you could prove with complete certainty that they were guilty with a genetic match, you couldn't try them again. So, hooray for not having a constitution, a Bill went through Parliament which allowed the Court of Appeal to allow new trials where the prosecution had significant new evidence, like a genetic test that didn't exist at the time of the original trial and so couldn't have been used."

I pause to let her and her audience digest that one.

"I don't know how many criminals in America have remained free despite the fact that their guilt can now be proven. Maybe you could check that yourself. But I doubt that it's none give how many Britain had. The American constitutional right against self incrimination exists so that police couldn't use confessions gained through torture. G-gnomes don't torture people. And if that's unsettling, Atlantis has spells which prevent lying. Technically, compelling people to accept either would be unconstitutional in America, but… Why? What's wrong with preventing people from lying in court?"

She nods. "On that note, have you had any input into the Bill being put before Congress relating to the Justice League reconstruction efforts?"

"I didn't even know there was one. Do you have the draft text with you?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

27th June 2013
10:21 GMT -5

"So?"

"Ah… Okay, well, you understand that I haven't really had a chance to think though all of the wrinkles yet?"

She nods.

"No, I'm going to need you say it out loud so I've got something to play to Batman later."

"Alright. I understand that this is just your first impressions. So what are they?"

"Assuming this version is what passes through committee and gets out into law? Relief, mostly."

"I'm a little surprised that you're relieved. Did you actually care about getting indemnified?"

"Oh, no. Quite aside from that it's basically impossible for conventional law enforcement to enforce laws against me, and the fact that I have a diplomatic passport, I wouldn't be a superhero if I cared more about doing what's legal rather than what's right. But this is-. I was actually having a discussion with Green Arrow a while ago, because I was getting concerned… About that thing I'm not supposed to talk about. The way we… I mean, rushing to get stuff rebuilt without reference to.. governments, or anything like that. And I didn't have a problem with that to start with, because things were so desperate and… Some of the work we did generates large numbers of stress casualties when normal people do it."

I remember vividly getting benched after Klarion's world-split. I'm not-. My effectiveness was decreasing, but I'm not entirely sure if it was the bodies or.. just mental tiredness. I'd assume that enlightenment would make me at least highly resistant to that sort of thing, but… I don't really want to try testing it.

"But… Recently, I've… Sort of been waiting for the governments around the world to start… Actually… Governing again."

"You want people from the government telling you what to do?"

"No-. No, but I wouldn't mind there being a framework. It's like… In the nineteen thirties, vigilantes were pure vigilantes, but most superheroes on the Justice League had some sort of cooperation agreement with their home city's police department even before the laws enabling the Justice League got signed. Most states actually have rules for acting outside the rules, daft as that sounds."

And a couple of states where they refuse to, because a good kill is a good kill whether you're wearing a costume or not.

Texas really is the most American state.

For better or worse.

"And you want to know what the rules are… So you know what you're ignoring."

"Yes." Wait. "No. Sort of."

She looks at me askance. "Okay."

"While I do want to help people, I recognise that restoring functional civilisation will ultimately help more people than me flying food parcels around or rebuilding…" I gesture at Hub City. "One city. Batman and Mister Atom have been doing a lot of the coordination work for the Justice League, and… Affiliated people have been feeding into that. And for short term or small scales things that's fine, but I've had a lingering concern that… We're going to create a situation where people wait for a team of thirty people to fix things rather than fixing what they can… And governments at the local or national level are useful things for organising that."

"I don't.. see anyone from government here."

"I've been liaising with the mayor, a hard-working and dutiful woman whose administration is comprised of the few people who stuck around. I haven't seen anyone from the state or national government."

"Some commentators have suggested that President Knight's failures of leadership have worsened the crisis."

"Well, when you're supposed to be in charge, people will blame you for what's going wrong whether you could really have done anything about it or not.".

"So you don't think he's to blame?"

"I haven't seen much of him. I've.. been busy actually fixing things. F.E.M.A. dropped some cheese off at some point… Which was nice of them. But otherwise, no one."

"Do you think that F.E.M.A. should be doing more?"

"I'm not sure how they could. Their organisation was designed to move resources to disaster zones, but now everywhere's a disaster zone. There's no organisational change you could make that would enable them to function in the way they could have a year ago."

"Did you hear anything from the Illinois state government?"

"I heard that they tried issuing bonds but couldn't find any buyers. I don't… I haven't studied their response in any detail, again, but that suggests to me that they still haven't really internalised that things… Aren't normal."

"If they don't have any money, they can't-."

"Then they should shut themselves down, pick up a.. spade or a trowel or a wheelbarrow and do something useful with their time instead of sitting in an office wringing their hands. Of course, as I said, I haven't looked into Illinois' response in detail, and if they decided to ignore Hub City because they want to channel their resources elsewhere, then… Fine. That's a reasonable thing to do. At this point they really should have sent someone to talk to me, but if they're really fully utilising their resources on everywhere else then I could understand them not having the manpower or just letting me get on with it because it won't affect their plans." … "Assuming they have plans. And if they don't, Plan Total Anarchy is fine, just as long as they're not collecting a salary for work they're not doing."

And… That was probably inflammatory enough to earn me a lecture from Batman. So why stop there?

"And if I might wander from the point a little..?"

She makes a 'don't let me stop you' gesture.

"I did a lecture a couple of years ago about humanity not taking advantage of its options. You know what nation isn't having any problems right now? Accalacan. They produce food next to or in their settlements, they're all strong enough not to need machine tools to build things, and magic use is fairly common. They keep the few things they need complex civilisation for, but otherwise they've transitioned to a novel social structure that makes sense for them. Now, they'd be in trouble if anything happened to Hugo Danner, but it works fairly well. I think… This is a good opportunity to… While things are broken down, to look at which parts were actually necessary and which were out dated or flat out parasitic. And what other things could usefully be added in. Trying to teach people magic would have been a non-starter when America was founded, and not just because it would have been theologically unacceptable to the settlers. Thaumaturgy wasn't well understood on the surface, there weren't enough people who could teach it and there wasn't any call for the things that simple magics could do. I-."

Okay, don't mention the Eloi, but try and make the same point with a little more politeness.

"And there are any number of other ways to empower individuals-. Or-. Rather, ways for individuals to empower themselves. The Danner Formula can be mass produced; I know LexCorp was doing some work on it. During the Sheeda Invasion… Okay, Sheeda Highborn could beat Danner enhanciles, but their regular soldiers would have died en masse. Anti-Life? People who'd achieved enlightenment flat out weren't affected by it. I think… It's not just a matter of 'we could do more', now. It's us getting smashed flat if we hold back. If we don't push ourselves a heck of a lot harder than we have been. And… We can't afford that."

Ms. Grant looks sombre as she nods. "Orange Lantern, thank you for speaking with me."

 

[Mr Zoat]

6th March 2025
09:25 GMT -5

Invincible leads the way towards the city centre. I can easily track the two Invincible-variants who are in the area, but given the speed they can move it's more efficient to bring them to us than to pursue them. The local Invincible occasionally glances at him, but for the most part he keeps on the lookout.

"Hey, Lantern." Invincible glances back. "Are you recording this for Anissa?"

Local Invincible and Atom Eve both give me a slightly puzzled look as I nod.

"I haven't done anything that would interest her yet, but I am recording."

Eve frowns. "What do you mean, 'interest her'?"

"Short version? We're married, she's pregnant with my child and she-" Local Invincible stops flying for a moment, staring at me. "-likes it when I make a display of strength." … "Likes it a lot, actually."

Local Invincible moves a little closer to me. "Is that why you sided with the Viltrum Empire?"

"No, I just sort of fell into that. When I got my powers I thought the G.D.A. looked too dodgy to sign up with, and then… The conquest happened. I started working on reconstruction, and… Coming to terms with the Empire made the occupation less onerous than it might otherwise have been."

"Don't do yourself down, buddy." Invincible looks back, smiling. "You're the reason Europe hasn't had.. like a.. cholera outbreak or something." He makes eye contact with our two temporary allies. "This guy knows more about Viltrumite Empire building standards than Dad does. He's saved a lot of lives. Earth would be a better place if more people were like him."

That's the most effusive praise I've ever had from him. Though I suppose that there aren't many situations where we're with someone friendly who isn't another viltrumite or… Our Atom Eve.

"You're very kind." Scan. "Incoming."

"Hey!" An Invincible with a… Bandana-mask thing, flies down from the top of one of the taller buildings. "This city's taken!"

Local Invincible clenches his fists, whereas Invincible looks disappointed. "Oh. You."

Bandana face floats closer. "What the fuck did you just say to me?"

"I remember the one of us wearing Dad's costume. The guy with the scars. The guy in Dad's old costume. The guy with the Mohawk. But you were just kind of there. I mean, what do I even call you? Bandana-face? Potty-mouth?"

"Fuck you! Get the fuck out of my city before I throw your generic bitch-ass out!"

"'Generic'? Okay, slava Ukraine, I'm the only one who actually had a friend to bring along." I raise my right hand and wave. "Actually…" He turns his head towards me. "Anissa likes it when you fight people, right?"

"She is appreciative, yes."

"Hey! Pay-" Bandana face takes a swing at him, but he just viffs out of the way. "-attention!"

"You can still have sex while she's pregnant?"

"Humans can and viltrumites are a good deal tougher than humans. There isn't any data on human male female viltrumite pairings."

Not that that's stopped her when the hormones hit and she can't deal with them by beating someone to death. On the plus side, I've gotten very good at physical ring reinforcement.

"Then you can handle this one."

Bandana Invincible cranes his neck forwards. "The fuck you say?"

I smile politely. "He wants me to kill you for the erotic titillation of my wife." I thrust my right arm out to the side and take an x-ionised sword out of subspace. "Die proudly, knowing that you have served a higher purpose in death than you ever did in life."

Accelerated perception.

"I'm-"

He drops into a diving position, lunging at me.

"-gunna-"

His flight speed is a little lower than what Invincible can do when he really makes an effort, but I'm not sure whether that's because his abilities are less developed or because he's holding back in case one of the Invincibles or Atom Eve decide to get involved. Fists clenched because he wants to hit me, rather than drag things out or capture me.

It's a relatively simple matter to dodge to the side, sword extending to cut into his side.

"Ow!"

Bandana Invincible twists in the air, right hand going to the shallow cut in his side. His posture suggests that he's more surprised than pained.

"How did-?"

I dart forward, shoving a construct oxygen mask under his bandana and sending a blast of high-pressure chlorine into his-

He waves his hand to disrupt the construct while darting backwards in the air.

-lungs.

"What was that supposed to do? I can hold my breath for-ug-hurr!"

He coughs yellow as the chlorine starts blistering his lungs from the inside. But it's obvious already that it's not going to be enough to disable him, let alone kill him. He coughs twice more, then takes a deep breath. And then spits out a mouthful of blood. And then-.

This time he's faster. I barely see him coming. But I do, and I dodge to the side faster than he can swing his fist. And again as he spins and tries to kick me then forwards and slash!

The sword pierces his side, cuts through to his spine and then sticks-. How? It shouldn't-.

Bandana face grabs my arm, coughing more blood against the inside of his mask.

"Got your-"

Sever arm, needle gun.

"-arm?" He looks down at the severed limb as I back away. "Hey, it's no fun if you maim yourself!"

Fire.

X-ionised needles punch through both eyes and jam themselves into his brain.

"Dagh!"

The issue is that viltrumites aren't just tough, they're resilient too. The sort of brain injury I just did to him would kill any human, but his eye sockets are barely bleeding and he's still flying. Alright, he's thrashing about and… Trying to use my arm as a bludgeoning tool?

"A-ahhgh!"

Slightly more blood coming out now, because the needles haven't come out and they're still pretty sharp. Not sure why the sword didn't just go through him. Perhaps their toughness is more to do with some sort of energy field? Or..? Super-elasticity of some sort?

I send a filament to the sword and take hold of it with a construct right hand. Then fly closer, aim and swing.

This time his body falls, his head following a moment later.

"Atom Eve. We appear to have similar power sets." I recreate my arm, then armour it. "Would you like to take the next one?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

1st July 2013
11:46 GMT -5

"So..?"

"E-h…" Beryl makes a sound a little like someone's choking her while she yawns. "This isn't really my thing."

"Um. When you say that, do you mean that you've got something better to do, or-."

"No! No. I mean, yes, but no."

"You're.. too young for Vicar of Dibley, aren't you?"

She snorts. "No no.. no.. no no…"

"Yes." / "Yes."

We both chuckle quietly. Ah, I've missed being able to make pop culture references and have the people around me understand what I'm talking about. I mean, I only bat one in three with British people, but that's more than I get here. Here, I got the whole team staring at me when I said that I had no idea who Uncle Oswald is.

"My Mum liked it, and she got me watching it when they did repeats."

"And now I feel even older. Thanks, Squire. Thanks a lot."

"Maybe my Mum's just really young. You've never-. Ah."

"Team mates and their families, Squire."

"Right. Thank you. I know you'd do a better job than the N.H.S., I just hadn't put it together."

"Long day?"

"Long five months. I've been.. organising things. Finding bottlenecks in supply chains, working out the most efficient ways to get things up and running."

"Are you working with Batman and Mister Atom?"

"No. Ugh, it's-. I just don't know enough to work at their level. And-. Do you know Asimov?"

"About half my bed time stories growing up were Asimov."

"Hari Seldon thought he could predict everything over the long term, and-."

"And one powerful telepath threw the whole thing off, because psychohistory can't predict the actions of individuals because he incorrectly assumed that those didn't matter over the long term."

"Because they don't, except when the individual is so powerful that they can throw history off track on their own like the Mule. Or you. Or Superman. Or a bunch of other people. Bloody Second Foundation don't know how easy they had it."

"So..?"

"So I can tell you all about Hub City, and the building work, and the way people will probably respond to what you're doing, but because there's no established cultural mechanism for Dolmen Gates I can't predict what's going to happen. Not exactly."

"And the 'more important' bit?"

She sighs. "I could learn more if I visited Hub City, but they're using me like Mycroft Holmes here. I can't really justify taking the time away."

I nod to myself. "Not overworking you, I hope?"

"Dodge the Working Time Directive for something as trivial as an apocalypse? Don't be daft."

"Okay, well, thanks for hearing me out. I'll-."

"I did get time to watch your interview."

I take a deep breath in, and then slowly let it out.

"How bad?"

"Depends what you mean by 'bad', really. I wouldn't worry about Batman."

"I would."

"Look, he's the one who's been trying to get governments to sign something so they can't throw a fit about what the League is doing when this is all over. As far as I can tell, your interview improved perception of the Bills by a little. Fewer people freaking out about it, and fewer people listening to them because it was you, the 'I can't talk about the Justice League taking over the world' guy."

"At least they're not talking about the cake."

"No, they were."

"The giant naked statue?"

"I don't think anyone really knows about that."

"Small mercies." I frown. "Ah, 'Bills'?"

"The Justice League works all over the world, doesn't it? Must be a right pain, having to deal with two hundred different legal systems. So just about every government that-. Well, that's functioning and is enforcing laws, is getting the same sort of Bill to approve. I think Mister Atom did the work rewriting it to all their different legal codes. It uses his phrasing in places."

"Huh. I.. guess he's been in communication with them and trying to hash out a standard code of conduct for a while, then."

"Probably. The U.N. Charter wasn't really supposed to be used for a situation like this. Mostly because no one ever thought something like this would ever happen. And even some of the countries that didn't want the Justice League arresting criminals in their territory want help getting their economies working again."

"Do you know when it's getting finalised?"

"They wouldn't be leaking it if it wasn't basically done. Given how much work we're doing, I'm pretty sure Batman actually would leave anyone who didn't pass the legislation at this point high and dry until they bucked their ideas up."

"Knowing what I know about the tar-like progress of Bills through the American legislature, is that really enough time?"

"You know how you said that the Justice League was taking over the world?"

"I am not allowed to talk about the Justice League taking over the world."

"Right, see, that. And while I think you think that that should wind politicians up, they all know what would happen if Superman stood against them in a recall election and none of them want to try it."

"I can't see him doing that."

"Batman threatened them with something that got them moving, and that's my best guess. You talk to him more than I do."

"I.. don't think I'll ask. Not unless you really want to know."

"No, I'm fine not knowing."

"Alright, that's… That, then."

"Okay, talk-."

"Um. How's.. school going?"

"Did you just make a social enquiry?"

"Yes. I… I realise that I sometimes fall out of touch with people and I'm trying to do better. How are things, Beryl?"

"Um… Okay, then."